A little blog about life, family, food, and living in the beautiful Pacific Northwest

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Bullwinkle Never Had It So Good -- Mousse!

Years ago, a friend invited hubbyman and I over for dinner and served us a delicious chocolate mousse dessert made from ricotta cheese. It had a very mild flavor and a slightly grainy texture ... not at all unpleasant. I remember thinking how much I liked it; I enjoy preparations that provide a new twist on a familiar food.

When I went grocery shopping a couple days ago, for some reason that dessert popped in my mind. As if on cue, I just happened to be in the dairy isle, and of it's own accord, my arm just happened to reach toward the ricotta cheese where my hand just happened to happily retrieve a container of the said ricotta, which was then deposited in my cart. Does that ever happen to you? Does your hand reach out and snare items as you go past? I don't even think my cart slowed down! I go to the store with a list, a well thought out list, and yet these "things" get in my cart. It's a mystery.

What makes this unusual is that we rarely have desserts at home. I know, I know ... my poor family is sooooo deprived, *sniff, sniff*. The way I see it, I'm depriving my hips of a few extra layers. Sorry my loved ones, the hips trump dessert. It's not like the hubbyman and offspring are suffering. Now that I think about it, though, there was some drama as they all crowded around the kitchen island as I was making this. Each of them in turn stared longingly at the mixing bowl with large, pleading eyes and asked, "please sir, I want some more?". Oh wait, sorry, I'm confusing them with drama from different urchins in Oliver Twist. Sorry, Dickens. In truth, though, they did wistfully comment, "Mom, do we get to try this? We want the stuff you make." Hubbyman said in amazement something like, "Is this for me? I get some?" *sigh* Now I'm feeling guilty. Ok, Ok, I'll make more desserts. Zheesh!

Anyway, this was easy to put together. Look out Rocky and Bullwinkle, here are the ingredients to make Amaretto Chocolate Ricotta Mousse:

In a large mixing bowl, combine powdered sugar and cocoa powder. Push the ricotta cheese through a sieve, and mix in with sugar and cocoa mixture. Whisk in the cream cheese, Amaretto, and whipping cream. Spoon into serving dishes and serve at once, or refrigerate if you want a firmer mousse. Garnish with pistachios and sliced fruit. (Like the strawberry? ... fresh picked this morning from my garden!) I just love these little antique glasses. I always wonder who used them and how they were used in the long ago past. I'm nostalgic like that.

NOTES: You could probably substitute Splenda for the powdered sugar, measuring it to taste. Also, I think next time instead of using cocoa powder, I will grate some dark chocolate, melt it, and add it to the mixture. The Amaretto was something that I added on impulse. I was just blog chatting with Nita from Matron Of Husbandry (Throwback at Trapper Creek) about almond flavors and Amaretto. Since it was so fresh in my mind, I added it here. You could easily substitute a smaller quantity of almond extract, vanilla, or whatever flavoring you like with chocolate. Also, in my opinion, the chopped pistachios really made the dessert. The saltiness of the nuts really, really, really complimented the cheeses. (I really like using the word "really". See how often I used it in the past couple of sentences.) Oh, also next time, I think I'll just whip this up in the food processor. While I don't mind the texture of the ricotta (I'm Italian after all), I think the food processor would smooth out the mousse for those with a pickier palate. I thought about it before I started, but I had used the food processor for dinner and didn't feel like washing it out again. See how the texture is just short of smooth? It's really more of a creamy dessert than a fluffy, airy traditional mousse.

Yumm, the texture obviously works for me. It tries to cling to the spoon. Excuse me for a second as I finish this bite. Ahhhh. Oooh, the Amaretto is soooo lovely. Perhaps I should pour some into a wee glass to toast my mousse.Ahem, back to the recipe. The end result was quite tasty with very mild choc and almond flavors. This mousse could lend itself to all sorts of desserts. You could sprinkle crushed ginger snaps on it, or you could line a serving dish with vanilla wafers or lady fingers and top it with the mousse and some whipped cream. Do you like mousse? I like mousse. As with most of my stuff, this creamy pleaser is gluten free.

I wonder what will make its way into my cart next time? Only my hand knows!

U R killing me girl! I don't need any (more)layers on my hips either, but chocolate and almonds just beg to be together. Think Chocolate Almond ice cream at Baskin & Robbins...If I make this, I won't have to share my secret stash of espresso ganache that I cleverly hide in a sour cream container in the back of the fridge. (This is strictly medicinal you know!)As always a great recipe and great pics.

Wow, this post nearly had me drooling on my keyboard but thankfully I stopped myself in time. I love mousse and I haven't made it in the longest time. My mom used to make it to where it took a couple hours, but it was so worth it. Good idea with the pistachios since a little crunch never hurt.

Noble Pig: Glad I'm not the only one finding it hard to control my arms/hands from grabbing stuff off the shelves and filling my basket! The dessert is really good; it's actually light brown, like choc milk! Crazy internet colors!

Hi Jan: Thanks! It really is a quick, yummy dessert.

Kevin: The pistachios really made the dessert. I liked the salty taste sensation they provided!

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Homeschool Tips and Tools: 2010

Bananagrams! Not too long ago, my kids and I discovered a great new game called Bananagrams. Far more fast paced and loads easier to play than Scrabble, this game requires only a table top and kids to get the fun underway. Better yet, adults and kids of all ages can play together. The playing pieces come packaged in a delightful, banana colored and shaped, zippered cloth pouch. It's free formed fun, and great entertainment for the entire family.

From a homeschooling perspective, it's a great tool to segue into creative writing or story telling. My kids create their own Bananagram "puzzle" and then use the words they created to write or tell an impromptu story. Silly or serious, all type of stories are encouraged!

The book titled English from the Roots Up by Joegil K. Kundquist has rapidly become one of my favorite resources for building a strong vocabulary base for my children. This spiral bound book provides both Latin and Greek word roots that provides students with tools to help them determine word meanings. I absolutely love it, and the rapid results that I see in my children are amazing. This is way better than a spelling program; by studying word roots, my children are gaining a much broader understanding of language and the power of words. The lessons are very easy to administer, short in duration, and my kids enjoyed them.

On the writing frontier, there is a book called Story Starters, Helping Children Write Like They've Never Written Beforeby Karen Andreola that provides writing prompts in the form of partially written stories for children to complete. While I found the book to be just ok, my children love it. I read the partially written story aloud, and they write the rest. The kids really enjoyed doing this as each of them looked forward to hearing the other's completed versions. This ended up being a great experience as the kids really wanted to impress their siblings with their version, and thus put more effort into their writing.

And for the grammar enthusiast lurking inside your student, here's a great book that explains how to diagram sentences. Diagraming Sentences by Deborah White Broadwater is a 46 page workbook complete with an answer key, and is perfect for your middle schooler.

Does your student embrace Science? Do you need quality supplies to conduct more in depth experiments at home? Check out Home Science Tools. I'm very impressed with the quality of the products we just ordered. Beakers, flasks, stirring rods, thermometers, chemicals, safety equipment, and so much more can be found and ordered on their website. www.homesciencetools.com . The items we received were top quality, the customer service rep was super, and the items were extremely well packed and delivered as promised. Look out Bill Nye ... future scientists in the house!Lapbooking and Notebooking are buzz words in the homeschool community. Here are two great resources for incorporating those strategies into your learning curriculum. Big Book of Booksby Dinah Zike and The Ultimate Lap Book Handbookby Tammy Duby and Cyndy Regeling helped me enhance our homeschooling experience using lapbooks. The content found in these books enabled me to teach a group of homeschool mom's how to incorporate lapbooking into their curriculums. You'll want to laminate your copies as they will get pulled off the shelf over and over again.